FLU – The story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it (book review)

Title :- FLU – The story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it.

By :- Gina Kolata

Published :- Pan Books, Great Britton 1999 Paperback (380 pages).

Outline :- In 1918 an estimated 40 million people died from a world wide pandemic of the flue. This happened at the time of the First World War, and so it’s true nature was diverted by the governments of the day fearing low morale in war time. People from both sides, and from around the world died in a matter of days from catching this virus, devastating all societies, from traditional tribes to healthy European soldiers during training, though others seemed to be immune. Many years later the nature of this virus and the manner in which it spread became an important research topic, and developed into a competition between selected research groups. One team dug up bodies from the Alaskan (and other from Norway) permafrost to obtain viable samples of the virus, and so form the bases of today’s ongoing research.

This 1918 pandemic flue remains the foundation to the immense effort of today’s governments to understand and react to bird flu, swine flue and such. Many books have followed this lead into reviewing the flu virus story.